1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for improving an educational material used in an education system using a network.
Also, the present invention relates to an apparatus for implementing the educational material improving method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exists an education system using a computer. The education system is constituted by connecting a host computer at an education center, and plurality of students"" terminals, through a network such as the Internet. The educational materials used in the education system are produced by the education center side. The educational materials are transmitted unit-by-unit from the education center to the students"" terminals through the network. The students learn using the received educational materials.
Because the educational materials are produced from the viewpoint of the producer, it is possible that there exists a part which is difficult for the student to understand. In a group education where an instructor faces to plurality of students, because the instructor can directly watch reactions of the students, the instructor can grasp a defective part of the educational material in the lesson. Thus, the instructor can compensate for the defective part of the educational material during the lesson, and further, can correct the defective part of the educational material later.
However, in the above mentioned education system, because the instructor cannot see the behavior of the students, there is no way of directly detecting the defective part of the educational material. Thus, there is no chance for correcting the defective part of the educational material and it is not possible to correct the defective part during the lesson.
The object of the present invention is to obtain a method for automatically detecting a defective part in an educational material, and indicating the defective part, in an education system using a network.
Also, the object of the present invention resides in providing an apparatus for implementing the above-mentioned method for notifying a defective part.
The present invention was invented to attain the above-mentioned objects. In the system for providing an educational service using a network, according to the present invention, there is provided a defective information storing means for storing a defect point correlation with a portion of an educational material. When the system receives a question from a student""s terminal, the defect point of the portion of the educational material is updated, in the defective information storing means, based on the received question.
By this update, whenever a question is sent from a student""s terminal, the defect points stored correlation with the portions of the educational materials are accumulated. It is judged whether the defect points have reached a predetermined threshold value, and the corresponding portion of the educational material is transmitted to the terminal of the system administrator, based on the result of the judgement.
Then, the system administrator""s side can easily detect the defective part in each educational-material unit and the nature of the defect.
Also, upon updating the above-mentioned defect point, a keyword appearing in a portion of the educational material is assigned a weight, and the defect point is updated in accordance with the weight, so that the amount of defects can be detected more accurately.